• Generates close to 1.1m tonnes of global 62m yearly e-waste volume
• Lagos roaming collectors feeding shadow economy
• ITU claims only 17.4% of e-waste is collected, recycled properly
• Africa lags as Europe gets 38% of revenue share
• Prolonged exposure to toxins can trigger cancer, WHO warns
• OEMs have no visible end-of-life plans for devices

Notwithstanding its large economic size and potential, Nigeria is missing out on the $89.48 billion global e-waste recycling market, even though it ranks among the continent’s biggest generators of discarded electronics and devices.

The absence of formal e-waste management mechanisms highlights a dangerous mix of lost economic opportunity and escalating environmental crisis.

A study by Precedence Research showed that the global e-waste recycling industry was valued at $77.61 billion in 2024 and projected to hit $279.49 billion by 2033, expanding at a 15.3 per cent compound yearly growth rate.

While Nigeria and other African countries lag, countries across Asia, Europe and North America are cashing out of what is becoming a crisis in developing countries, driven by rapid device turnover and shorter lifespans, government-backed recycling mandates, as well as rising demand for recovered metals like gold, copper and palladium.

Countries such as China, Germany and the United States are building advanced recycling plants, turning discarded electronics into profitable resources.

Currently, Nigeria generates between 500,000 and over 1.1 million tonnes of e-waste yearly but lacks formal recycling infrastructure.

Filling the gap are informal scrap dealers who use unsafe methods, such as burning cables to extract copper. This problem adds to the environmental crisis fuelled by the poorly managed metal scraps.

With no policy enforcement, investment incentives, certified recycling plants or end-of-life policies by device makers, Nigeria remains excluded from the booming market.

Experts estimated that if Nigeria captured even five per cent of the global market, it could earn $4.5 billion yearly, create thousands of jobs and establish a new export stream of refurbished electronics across West Africa.

Indeed, the challenge is not a Nigerian thing. Africa is said to be lacking in the e-waste recycling economy, an issue that was raised by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, South Africa.

CSIR, which noted that the continent continued to ship large volumes of discarded electronic equipment, including smartphones, computers, batteries and household appliances, to Europe and Asia for recovery and beneficiation, said the challenge resulted in lost opportunities for local manufacturing, mineral recovery, job creation and the development of circular economy industries.

The body claimed that Africa possesses significant untapped potential in e-waste beneficiation, particularly as demand grows globally for critical minerals and recyclable materials used in modern technologies and renewable energy systems.

While the continent misses the opportunity to partake in the recycling economy, there are huge concerns in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and others over rising volumes of e-waste, driven by rapid digital adoption, shorter device lifecycles and increasing consumer demand.

The CSIR claimed that printed circuit boards or PCBs are the most valuable prize in the e-waste value chain. The research body claimed that in Africa, such components are often exported rather than reclaimed locally.

According to an electrical engineer and CSIR lead of a South-South partnership on e-waste regulation and recycling at scale within Nigeria, South Africa, Colombia, India, Malaysia and the Dominican Republic, Dr Moshe Masonta, PCBs sit in every electronic piece of equipment or device.

“Currently in Africa, we do not have large-scale dismantling of PCBs, so most countries end up losing economic value by sending these PCBs to Europe and Asia,” said Masonta. “There is money to be made, but Africa is not benefiting.”

ITU claims only 17.4% of e-waste is collected, recycled properly
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has found that globally, 62 million tonnes of e-waste are generated yearly, but only 22.3 per cent is formally collected and recycled.

While it has also become difficult to get any end-of–life plans for devices from original equipment manufacturers, ITU noted that countries with e-waste regulation perform much better, with average collection rates of 25 per cent, while countries without regulation collect close to zero per cent. Countries with extended producer responsibility laws also have improved collection and recycling.

Deputy Director of the Electrical Electronics and Waste Control Division at NESREA, Anastasia Akhigbe, said the exchange has already shown that many e-waste challenges are shared across countries in the South-South region.

She expected the outcomes of the project to assist Nigeria in data management and policy reviews on e-waste.

“The robust extended producer responsibility reporting portals for South Africa and India are something Nigeria is looking at incorporating, as well as informal sector integration,” she was quoted as saying.

While Nigeria has failed to generate income from recycling, e-waste is mounting and fast becoming a menace across the country, a problem many analysts attribute to internal consumption and external dumping.  

According to them, domestically, soaring inflation and a prolonged cost-of-living crisis have forced millions of households to abandon brand-new devices in favour of cheaper, second-hand imports. Data from the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) showed that while the state recycled 405 tonnes in 2025 (up from 305 tonnes in 2023), this represents less than 0.04 per cent of the national total.

However, the most insidious driver is the international trade in used electronics. Under the guise of “bridging the digital divide”, developed countries ship millions of tonnes of used electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) to Lagos ports yearly.   

Data from the United Nations University tracking studies indicated that over 60,000 tonnes of used electronics enter Nigeria through ports yearly, with a significant portion of this being “truly junk”.

The informal recycling practices carry devastating consequences, including toxic emissions from burning plastics that pollute the air, hazardous substances like lead, mercury and cadmium seeping into soil and water, as well as the exposure of vulnerable groups, including children and women, to toxic substances.

Hubs such as Ikeja Village and Alaba Market in Lagos exemplify the level of toxicity from electronic dumps.

Prolonged exposure to toxins can trigger cancer, WHO warnsproperly
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that prolonged exposure of individuals, especially in such hubs, to e-waste toxins can trigger respiratory illnesses, developmental disorders and cancer.

With only about 15-20 per cent of the waste formally collected, the burden falls on the informal sector. A research paper in BMC Environmental Science (Springer Nature) highlighted that an estimated 100,000 Nigerians, many of them women and children, work as informal recyclers in these hotspots.

Findings showed that without protective gear, the workers smash cathode ray tubes and burn insulated cables to extract copper, aluminium, and other valuables. This primitive recycling releases a cocktail of toxins.

Academic research titled: “Assessing Groundwater Quality Near E-Waste Dumpsites in Lagos, Nigeria: A Content Analysis of Two Dumpsites from Alaba and Olusosun”, found dangerous levels of lead, cadmium and nickel exceeding WHO limits, concluding that 75 per cent of water samples were unfit for drinking.

The health impacts are devastating. A review published in Discover Chemistry noted that exposure to these heavy metals and brominated flame retardants is linked to severe respiratory ailments, neurological damage, skin diseases and reduced life expectancy.

“These are not just environmental issues; they are clinical ones,” stated a recent study on digital health interventions in Southwest Nigeria.

“Workers suffer from chronic coughing, miscarriages, and DNA damage due to the inhalation of lead and mercury particulates.”

Yearly, Nigeria reportedly burns or dumps over 52,000 tonnes of brominated plastics and 4,000 tonnes of lead, releasing dioxins and furans that linger in the environment for decades.

While the challenge remains huge, another trend is fast gaining ground in Nigeria – roaming e-waste collectors, who pick condemned devices at a price, now feed a shadow recycling local economy in the country.

Apart from the fact that the roaming collectors run a loosely structured network that stretches from household dustbins to scrap depots and informal recycling hubs, field interviews and existing reports showed that the door-to-door condemned device buyers operate at the lowest rung of a multi-layered system driven by demand for reusable parts and valuable metals.

Interviews conducted by The Guardian revealed a consistent pattern. The collectors move from door to door buying damaged irons, televisions, generators and mobile phones, often for between N500 and N10, 000 depending on condition.

“I sell it to a company in Ijora,” a trader, Sanni, said, though he admitted he did not know what the company actually does with the materials.

Another collector offered more insight into the chain. “I get people who buy it in Ijora. It is my oga that buys from us and then sells it to a company,” he explained, suggesting an expansive value chain where middlemen aggregate the scraps before passing it on to larger buyers.

Ijora, a well-known industrial and scrap trading zone in Lagos, is a key node in the network. Traders repeatedly referenced the area, particularly locations around major industrial landmarks, as their primary drop-off point. There, materials are sorted, dismantled and resold in bulk. For the collectors, value lies not in the device, but in its components.

“If I buy one, I will burn it, take only the small iron,” another trader said, referring to the place of metal extraction. Others spoke of dismantling generators and electronics to retrieve aluminium, copper and iron.

Industry observers said this practice is widespread across Nigeria’s informal recycling sector. Scrap metals are separated manually, often by burning cables or heating components to isolate valuable materials, a process that has contributed to environmental problems.

The parts are then sold to intermediaries or directly to recycling firms, many of which operate with limited oversight.

A trader simply identified as Ibrahim recounted buying a condemned generator for as much as N300,000, after dismantling it and reselling the parts for profit. “N100,000 is not money,” he said, hinting at the margins further up the chain.

Despite its scale, the trade operates largely outside formal regulation
According to the International Labour Organisation, up to 100,000 people work in the informal e-waste recycling sector in Nigeria, collecting and dismantling electronics manually to reclaim saleable components.

Recently, the President of the Association of Scrap and Wastepickers of Lagos, Friday Oku, noted that the current system of e-waste handling relies heavily on informal activities with limited formal support, with collectors often using unsafe methods such as burning and dismantling to extract valuable materials.

Transactions are cash-based, with no receipts or documentation. Collectors have no fixed business addresses, and most lack clear knowledge of where materials ultimately end up.

“There is no shop, no record, no way to trace who bought the device,” a Lagos-based environmental analyst, Harrison Ibe, noted. “It’s a completely informal value chain.”

This lack of structure creates both economic opportunity and systemic risk.

On one hand, the trade provides livelihoods for thousands of low-income workers. On the other, it raises concerns about environmental practices, worker safety and data security.

While the traders focus on extracting metals, experts warn that discarded electronics often contain something more valuable – data.

Faulty phones and laptops frequently retain intact storage systems. Even when devices fail, internal memory can still be accessed using basic tools. This creates a gap between what sellers think they are discarding and what buyers may recover.

Personal photos, emails, banking apps and saved passwords can remain accessible long after a device is sold. In some cases, SIM cards left inside (a rare possibility, though) can be used for identity verification and account access.

Cybersecurity professionals said such lapses have been linked to unauthorised transactions, identity theft and online fraud.

Yet awareness remains low among sellers, many of whom see damaged devices as worthless.